In any case it was Them's first solid national hit on this side of the pond, shooting straight up the charts and nudging into the number two spot only because the new Beatles single came out at the same time. And despite being a superhit, it's a totally bizarre song as the lyrics attest. The way Van barks "Wow, here it comes!" is enough to keep you awake nights, and the structure is unusual, changing from a vaguely Latinish balladic lament (the Bert Berns touch, again; the man never quite got the hot sauce out of his ears after his "Twist & Shout" conquered the world and though Van didn't suffer bv it, it did make some of his music predictable) into a sort of weirdo hillbilly roundelay, which is where the gawky lyrics quoted came in. There's no doubt that is was much a rock 'n' roll classic in its way as "Gloria", if destined by its form never to become such a standard, and even ends with the protaginist playing voyeur outside the window where the objects of his jealousy carry on in every unmentionable way his fertile pube brain can dream up.

{Lester Bangs the immortal scribe in a long liner note paen to the genius of Van Morrison's early work}